“untitled 02 | 06.23.2014.”

Photo by Jessica Lehrman

"You ain’t gotta tell me I’m the one." Look in Kendrick Lamar's eyes, the mic still crackling hot, after performing "Untitled 2" on "Fallon". He has just held the rap world hostage by performing a six-minute, hook-free jazz-rap suite with no names and multiple sections. He understands that he is dictating the terms.

"Untitled 2" feels of a piece with To Pimp a Butterfly: It exists in the same interior world, where the lights are low and we can’t always tell up from down. Success, fast money, lost time, God, drank, women, self-love—the images chase themselves through "Untitled 2" with dream logic. The music, meanwhile, pushes determinedly further into jazz and away from commercial rap. Lamar is setting up camp in a world so unique, so wholly his own that it's hard to know who could even compete with him on these terms. As the song builds its way into a heaving peak, Lamar says what he's really thinking: "I am the one/ Yes I’m the one." We are watching a historic artist operating at his peak, trusting his instincts and trusting us to follow. We don't need to tell him.